Selia stayed alert while Sergius berated this thug some more. It seemed like both men were equally committed in their convictions that the other was on a fast-track to an afterlife of pain and suffering. Oh, religion... She looked down the crossroads in the alley, not seeing anyone. Perhaps someone had been there, but bolted instead... or maybe these two thugs really were alone, and were only trying to frighten Sergius and Selia into thinking there were more of them?

The thug Sergius had pinned against the wall cried out for help, which Selia immediately interpreted as being an answer to her question. Turning her back on Sergius, she kept watch. Selia noticed another figure further down the alley appear to turn and notice her and Sergius. It appeared to be a fairly scrawny figure, with fairly similar gear as the other two men... only far less wary. Selia figured she could take this one.

"There's more of them!" Selia shouted.

**

Under her breath, she channeled another one of the dark magic spells she had read earlier in the day. Once the smaller thug approached to about twenty paces distance, she extended her left hand, letting the globe of dark energy seep out of her hand...

Her spell took the smaller thug by surprise, and he immediately turned to flee. Selia's mark with the dark magic spell went barely wide, still singeing the man's leg, but not badly enough to stop him. Though not dressed for sprinting after someone, Selia gave chase.

The chase didn't last long. Tripping on the unevenness of the dirty alleyway, Selia stumbled and then fell on her right side. By the time she got back up, the other man disappeared, and she hurried back over to where Sergius was dealing with the first thug. Selia was unconcerned with the minor scrapes on her shoulder.

--

** While Selia had run off to deal with what appeared to be another thug, the man in Sergius's grasp thrashed, and made a last gasp attempt to reach for a knife at his side to stab Sergius. The man gave no signs that he planned on "repenting", and appeared to be more intent on fighting. Most normal sellswords would likely have given up by now...

Sergius dropped the man as he struggled, frightened by the flash of the blade in the light. The thug lashed out with a newly produced blade, striking right at his midsection. The priest swung to the side, the knife slashing into his side. He winced with the pain. This heretic would never understand. And he would continue to be a murderer. He must be purged.

Sweat and fury began to furrow on Sergius' brow, and he reached out and grasped the thug's arm, clamping down harder than humanly possible with the aid of the light magic. He yanked the thug's arm down and kicked at the man's legs, sending him clattering to the alley floor. Sergius set upon him, pinning him to the ground with his knees and reaching for his prayer book.

The thug struggled, but the weight of the massive priest atop him left him completely powerless. Sergius began to recite the prayer of purging, and what he was sure was a humane and holy death burnt throughout the man's insides when he laid his hands on the thug's chest. That was it. He had cleansed this man.

"The Saint guide you," he recited over the dead man, "And may you find repose. And faith"

He rose slowly, lost in the fury of prayer and cleansing. His side stung, and he was sure the wound would need to be cleaned and healed in the next few hours if he would avoid more illness. Selia appeared, covered in mud as if she had just fallen. The light on his hands faded, and he once again put up the umbrella above the two. He turned to her, wiping sweat and dirt off of his face.

Selia brushed some of the mud off of her shoulder, her body language showing more annoyance than anything else. The rain had lightened a bit, but the skies were angry and menacing. More rain would be on the way, hopefully overnight. Selia looked over at the body of the man that was murdered and then back at the bodies of the two thugs before responding. She seemed oddly unfazed with what had just occurred.

"Reasonable to assume that, I could believe that two Lycian thugs would kill one of my compatriots. There's another one of them out there, but I didn't catch him... but I did find this on the body of our friend, here..." Selia said, holding up the book in question. The inscriptions on the tome indicated that it might be a bit more advanced of a tome than what would be normally found in a magic shop.
"I think something like this is a bit too valuable to leave lying around... books like this one don't exactly come cheap."

Selia held both books under one arm and looked over the body of the man apparently murdered by the two thugs. She was tempted to loot all of the bodies for money, and crouched next to the man's waist as if looking for a coin purse, but stopped herself, looking back up at Sergius.